(PatriotWise.com)- Last Friday, CNN’s ratings were far below the competition.
Fox News led the way in Friday’s daytime programming, averaging 1.63 million viewers. MSNBC came in second averaging 786,000 viewers during the daytime hours. Meanwhile, CNN brought up the rear, drawing only an average of 584,000 daytime viewers.
Primetime was worse.
Fox blew the competition out of the water, averaging 2.37 million primetime viewers last Friday. MSNBC came in second, averaging 1.09 million viewers, with CNN a far distant third averaging only 649,000 primetime viewers.
So ask yourself this question.
If you run a cable news network with ratings that terrible, would you launch a paid-subscription streaming service?
If people won’t watch CNN for free, what are the odds that they’d be willing to pay a monthly fee to watch CNN+?
Well, the answer is, the odds aren’t good.
According to a report from CNBC this week, since CNN+ launched on March 29, fewer than 10,000 people have been using it on a daily basis.
Ouch!
The streaming service, which charges $5.99 a month or $59.99 annually, has been such a disaster, according to an Axios report this week, the company is already planning “big cuts.”
CNN initially planned to invest about a billion dollars in CNN+ over the next four years. Not anymore.
The company also anticipated that it would get 2 million subscribers in the first year, and ultimately reach 15-18 million subscribers after four years. So only averaging 10,000 viewers a day must be a let-down.
And then there’s Chris Wallace.
If you remember, Wallace left his lucrative job at the high-rated Fox News Channel to join the fledgling CNN+ streaming service.
According to reporter Jon Nicosia, Wallace is “having daily breakdowns” over the disastrous launch of the ill-fated CNN+.
Nicosia tweeted on Tuesday that Wallace is threatening to walk unless CNN offers him a show on the cable network.
And not just any show. According to Nicosia’s source, Wallace wants CNN to give him Chris Cuomo’s 8:00 pm timeslot.
